Gender issues: Enhancing the role of women in peace negotiations and related decision-making processes in Southern Africa (continued)

As of May 2001, all but one Southern African state, Swaziland, had ratified or acceded to the Women's Convention (United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women 2001). The Women's Convention does not go as far as the Beijing Platform for Action in linking women's rights issues to the law of armed conflict. However, if the Women's Convention and Beijing Platform for Action are invoked together, along with other international norms and principles, they constitute a firm basis for advocating gender equality (Timothy & Freeman 2000).

In Southern Africa, male politicians, bureaucrats, academics and military officers have dominated and continue to dominate peace and security conferences. However, South Africa provides a rare exception to the general rule that women are marginalised in relation to peace and security issues. President Thabo Mbeki has appointed a number of women to pivotal positions in the South African cabinet, including Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma who heads the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as such has played an authoritative and high-profile role in the ongoing DRC peace process (Khan 2000, 2).

As Joane Nagel points out, women are not expected to defend, run or represent their respective countries. Many women do, but their presence in state institutions is generally unwelcome unless they occupy the familiar supporting roles of secretary, lover or wife (Nagel 1998, 261), which reflect masculine notions of femininity and of women's proper "place" in society and the nation (Nagel 1998, 243). This probably explains why the late DRC President Laurent-Désiré Kabila often referred disparagingly to Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as "that woman" (Khan 2000: 2). In playing such a prominent role in the DRC peace process, she undermines the principles governing the gender division of labour in which power relations are skewed in favour of men. This trend was vividly illustrated at the signing of the DRC Cease-fire Agreement in July 1999. According to an AFP journalist's eyewitness account, the women who participated in this ceremony were assigned the servile role of handing out the Agreement to the male heads of state and rebel leaders who had gathered in Lusaka for the signing ceremony.

Although national and international laws promoting gender equality exist in Southern Africa, there are serious problems in trying to move from a position where these laws are mere principles to one in which they are practised. This is because women's rights are entangled with some deeply ingrained attitudes, which have a socio-cultural base within Southern African societies. While Southern African governments endorse egalitarian ideals, social attitudes are still linked to a patriarchal culture, which espouses male superiority and female inferiority (Human Rights Watch/Africa & Human Rights Watch/Women's Rights Project 1994, 11). "African tradition" (Cheater & Gaidzanwa 1996, 197), or the so-called "African way of life" (Kazembe 1987, 390) are used to justify and perpetuate discrimination against women.

For example, since Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, the Zimbabwean government has made great strides, through wide-ranging legislative measures, to promote and protect women's rights in Zimbabwe. These legislative measures include the 1982 Legal Age of Majority Act, which accorded majority status to African women aged 18 years and above for the first time in Zimbabwe's history (Stewart, et al 1990, 169). Obviously, the mere formulation, in Zimbabwe's case, of anti-discrimination laws, such as the Legal Age of Majority Act and the ratification of international human rights instruments, such as the Women's Convention, will not do away with gender-based discrimination and negative, but popular stereotypes about women. This point was vividly illustrated by the Magaya vs Magaya Supreme Court ruling, which stripped Vennia Magaya of her inheritance rights and relegated Zimbabwean women to the status of "junior males". If Southern African governments accept the challenge of achieving equality for all Southern African citizens, regardless of gender, it is important that the relevant laws are implemented. In modern nation-states, tradition and culture should serve to uphold the rule of law and equality for women, rather than justify the violation of these fundamental and universally valid principles (Human Rights Watch/Africa & Human Rights Watch/Women's Rights Project 1994, 11).

References

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